Although Ninja Tune label founders Jonathan More and Matt Black, a/k/a Coldcut, have never committed to a formal label statement, the duo’s recently reissued 1996 CD Journeys by DJ: 70 Minutes of Madness (Ninja Tune) is as good a blueprint for the label’s æsthetic as you could ask for. Drawing — or erasing, depending on how you look at it — lines separating hip-hop, drum ’n’ bass, electro, dub, funk, techno, and downtempo, 70 Minutes of Madness propounds an unforced agenda as all-inclusive and nonrestrictive as the original culture of hip-hop that birthed Coldcut’s best work.

Since releasing that disc, Ninja Tune has embraced the sense of community implicit in early hip-hop, attracting like-minded sampler surgeons and building a challenging roster. Last month, the label released full-lengths from Amon Tobin, DJ Vadim, and Mr. Scruff, unleashing breakbeats running the gamut from manic to minimalist.

Brazilian-born, British-bred Amon Tobin, who comes to the Paradise this Saturday, is currently based in Montreal. With Out from Out Where, the fourth album he’s released under his given name (he’s also recorded as Cujo), Tobin moves even farther from the collage of Latin jazz shards and batucada bombardment that characterized his early career only to become the boutique sound of the new millennium. With meticulous placement, he obliterates his source material’s context, tweaking melodies and creating brutal cut-and-paste breaks. But whether it’s the fluttering flamenco Prefuse 73/Funkstörung homage to vocal percussion of "Verbal" or the spasm of Mouse on Mars–like skitter on "Triple Science," Out from Out Where evinces a recognizable Amon Tobin essence; you can hear it in the throb of the toms over the kick drum and the tense noir of cinematic swells. Like the opaque surface of the ocean at night, the album can be calming and also disconcerting, and it doesn’t reveal its depths till you’re drowning in them.

USSR: The Art of Listening, the latest by Russian-bred DJ Vadim, is a more transparent work. It’s also his most minimal album. Every track is painstakingly paced, and the spare production hides nothing. The surprise is in how effective Vadim is with so little. Beats peck rather than pound, and a posse of MCs including Motion Man, Gift of Gab, TTC and Slug, and Yarah Bravo plus DJs like Plus One guest over the abstract instrumentalist’s productions. Vadim’s sounds get so sparse and spaced out (in more ways than one) that his collaborators have to flow to the pace of the pauses. Pulses percolate under songs; creaks and crackles bubble to the surface. Gamelan or harp is as likely to pluck as a guitar or a Fender Rhodes. There are more humans involved in the final product than in Vadim’s early work; still, the spectral sax and keyboard-laced jazz of "Revelations Well Expounded," with its hiccupping disembodied voices, is typically haunting.

Trouser Jazz is the third and latest CD from Manchester’s Mr. Scruff. On his previous album, Keep It Unreal, Scruff stewed up a bouillabaisse of beats, mingling tastes of funk, hip-hop, jazz, dub, and soul, all with a sprinkle of childish wonder. Trouser Jazz uses similar ingredients, with dashes of house and ragga; yet it simmers more often than it boils. That’s not to say this is a chill-out album. It’s a step forward for Scruff’s programming skills, which have always leaned more toward shiny bounce than smoked-out creep. But it’s a step back from the full-on playfulness of his earlier work. For all that there’s plenty of swing, the album doesn’t swing wildly. And though fans of DJ Food and Mark Rae will find some funk-jazz morsels to nibble on, I still wish Scruff had flown a little more by the seat of his pants. That would be in keeping with the Ninja Tune approach.

Amon Tobin performs at the Paradise, 969 Commonwealth Avenue, this Saturday, November 9. Call (617) 562-8804.